CHARA Database Query Form

Select a database:

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All CHARA

Classic

CLIMB 1

CLIMB 2

FLUOR

JouFLU

MIRC

MIRC-X

MYSTIC

PAVO

VEGA

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Version 0.3

• The portal now includes MYSTIC data.

Version 0.2

• The portal includes a table for each beam combiner and an “All CHARA” table that summarizes and standardizes the entries in the other tables.

• The All CHARA table:

  • This table includes some data from all beam combiners.
  • Any entry on the portal has raw data in the archive.
  • The target search uses astroquery to get the coordinates of the target (so long as the target is input in a format recognized by Simbad). The portal will then display all database entries with coordinates within the provided search distance (default is 0.5 degrees).
    • Currently, it is a very simple implementation where what is shown after performing a target search is the database restricted to entries with listed RA within the search distance and DEC within the search distance (e.g., RA of target +/- 0.5 degrees and DEC of target +/-0.5 degrees).
  • The user can select a range of dates to search over using the “Start Date” and “End Date” fields.
  • The user can change what columns in the table are being displayed by selecting from the options in the “Columns to Display" field. Current options are:
    • Star_HD - The star HD number as listed in the data header
    • Object_Type - The object type as listed in the data header (when available)
    • UT_Date - The UT date of the observation
    • UT_Time - The UT time of the observation
    • XX_Used - Whether or not a given telescope is used (1-used, 0-not used)
    • Beam_X - Which telescope (if any) is on the given beam
    • Azimuth/Elevation - The azimuth and elevation at the time of observation (when available)
    • U/V_Coordinate - The U and V coordinates for the observation (when available)
    • RA/DEC - The right ascension and declination of the target
    • PI - The principle investigator for the observation (when available)
    • Program - The program ID for the observation (when available)
    • Combiner - The beam combiner that was used to make the observation
  • The user can select which beam combiners to show data from using the “Select Beam Combiner(s)” field.
  • The user can select the Principle Investigator (PI) they wish to search by using the “Select PI(s)” field.
    • Currently, the PIs are listed as they are in the data these entries are based on. This means many entires do not have a PI listed and some PI names are inconsistent (e.g., “tenBrummelaar” vs. “ten_Brummelaar”). In future versions, we will standardize this and tie entries with no listed PI to the PI listed on the observing schedule.

• Individual Beam Combiner tables:

  • Includes most of the data that is in the archive for the beam combiner.
    • There are some entries for which the script that reads the raw data files for input into the database failed. This will be corrected in future versions.
    • Also not included are entries for data that were in the 18-month proprietary period at the time of creating the beam combiner’s data table.
  • Includes all information from the header file of the raw data.
    • In the case of VEGA data, this information comes from the .info files for each observation.
    • In the case of PAVO, MIRC, and MIRC-X data, the headers that are used come from the first data file of each data sequence as determined by reading the headstrip.txt file (PAVO), the *.mirclog file (MIRC), or the *mircx_log.txt file (MIRC-X) for each night.
  • Unlike with the All CHARA table, the target search for individual beam combiner tables is done by an exact match to the target name as it was recorded in the data headers.

Features to be include in future versions (in no particular order).

• A better search algorithm that properly accounts for distance, instead of the current “square” search.
• More information for each entry in the All CHARA table (some of this is already included for some beam combiners)
  Object type (target or calibrator)
• Principle Investigator and Program ID (based on observing schedules for those entries where the information is missing from data)
• The location of the data on the archive
• Published article(s) that used this data (where applicable)
• If there’s published data in the archive, a download link to the oifits file
• If there’s auto-reduced data in the archive, a download link to the oifits file
• All data that isn’t already in the archive will be added to the archive
• All data that is in the archive will be listed in the database
• More informative error messages
• Beautification